WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates for conservation and stewardship of the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, Santa Fe, and Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.

Renee already passed the most recent water quality testing training.
Trainer Gretchen Quarterman got Renee to review with her new kit.
Renee is already on the WWALS Testing Committee,
and now she’s ready to test.

Valdosta Utilities apparently cleaned up this one in April off of Bemiss Road
before it could get into Cherry Creek, since the bacterial sample I took showed very little E. coli.
Here’s a Valdosta press release and video on how to prevent such spills.

The City of Valdosta is asking residents to avoid flushing
sanitation wipes even if the package states they are flushable!
Paper towels and facial tissues also should not be flushed in local
sewer lines as people practice guidelines to combat the ongoing
Coronavirus pandemic. While the “flushable” wipes
concern is not new to wastewater facilities, there is an increased
risk to our system recently. Continue reading →

The Okefenokee Swamp is a gem, locally, nationally, and internationally, too important to risk for profit by a few miners for paint.
This is in a radio interview of Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman by
Brian Blount of WKUB 105.1 out of Blackshear, Pierce County, Georgia, north of Waycross and the Swamp.

Here is an introduction by Wade Scott, and my request for people to ask the Army Corps to deny the permit application by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, or at least to require an Environmental Impact Statement broad enough to cover the whole Swamp and the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, as well as the existing titanium mines in north Florida and south Georgia, plus the phosphate mines current and proposed in north Florida. Continue reading →

Conn and Trudy Cole also tested for WWALS Sunday, except at Crooked Creek,
which was almost dry under the Devane Road bridge,
so it can’t be sending any contamination downstream.
At US 84 they got 66 cfu/100 mL E. coli for Okapilco Creek
and 33 for the Withlacoochee River.
WWALS continues testing, and you can help.

Plus we have Valdosta data for Monday and last Wednesday and Friday,
all showing pretty clean at US 84 on the Withlacoochee River and upstream.
So it was a good weekend for boating, swimming, and fishing on the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers.

Valdosta results upstream Friday, May 29, 2020, at GA 133 and US 41 on the Withlacoochee River were oddly higher than downstream, with 265 E. coli.
That’s higher than the 126 long-term average limit, but still well below the
410 single-test limit.
For Wednesday at Knights Ferry, Valdosta got a weirdly very high Fecal coliform result, 1,400,
but a pretty normal 140 E. coli.
See Continue reading →

Mr. Quarterman, On yesterday the Department, including Mr. Fowler
were in the field preparing for anticipated significant rain events
over the next several days. As a result, there was no response
within the 5.5-6 hour window you noted in your email. Included in
this reply is your email to Mr. Fowler so we all can be on the same
page as it relates to your request.

Scotti Jay smelled a sewer spill.
He found an open manhole, a bunch of hoses, and tracks of large trucks,
presumably Valdosta Utilities pumper trucks.
We don’t know, because Valdosta has not answered an inquiry from this morning.

I’ve posted green for “Meets water quality standards” on Swim Guide all the way from Cook County Boat Ramp (GA 76) on the Little River for last weekend,
and the same past State Line Boat Ramp into Florida for late last week.
With little rain lately and none forecast, this clean trend should continue.

There’s no point in attending the toll roads webinars:
instead ask Florida governor DeSantis to use the toll road funds for pandemic relief.

FDOT didn’t listen to First Amendment Foundation:
“All portions of the Sunshine Law continue to apply even
during this horrible pandemic. No part of the Law has been suspended
or modified as applied to state agencies. As a result, I
respectfully request that FDOT exercise patience, cancel any and all
M-CORES Task Force meetings, and reschedule the meetings only when
members of the Task Force and Florida citizens can fully participate
in-person and by all feasible means.